


Like the Moon Needs Poetry

by Chash



Series: Coming Out of My Cage and I've Been Doing Just Fine [2]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-26 16:45:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3857800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five ringtones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like the Moon Needs Poetry

i.

Clarke's stuffing a bunch of t-shirts into a box when her phone starts playing "Boa Constrictor" in the living room. In theory, Monroe is supervising Clarke's moving efforts, but it turns out she sucks at packing so much Monroe can't even be in the same room with her, so she's doing the kitchen and living room while Clarke makes a mess of the bedroom. It's pretty sad. She gives Clarke a weird look when she comes out to grab the call, but Clarke's more interested in her phone than Monroe's judging, so she ignores it.

Bellamy's texted, _How's packing?_

_Monroe's eye is twitching a lot_.

 _That's my girl._ And then, _You, not Monroe. But say hi to Monroe for me._

"Is that your boyfriend?" Monroe asks.

"Yes, shut up. He says hi."

"You're nauseating. Is that seriously his ring tone? Because it kind of makes it sound like you want to kill him and eat his skin."

Clarke had already been thinking she should probably change the ring tone, not because it sounds like she wants to kill him and eat his skin, but just because it doesn't really feel like an accurate representation of their relationship anymore.

"That song is what convinced him to go out with me," she says, scrolling through _69 Love Songs_ in iTunes.

"I haven't met him, but he sounds _great_."

"You'll meet him when you help me unpack all this shit." She sees "When My Boy Walks Down the Street" and grins; Monroe makes a face.

"I really don't understand how your relationships work at all."

"Me neither," she says cheerfully, and opens up the app she uses to make custom ringtones to pare it down.

 _Monroe thinks I want to kill you and eat your skin_ , she texts him after she finishes.

She likes the sound of the new ring; it feels a lot less like she's sixteen and keeping a diary about how much she hates feelings. _If you kill me, you should definitely eat my skin. Otherwise it's just going to go to waste._

Clarke grins at Monroe. "You're going to love him, seriously."

 

ii.

Clarke is waiting for Bellamy at Tondici when her phone starts playing "For We Are the King of the Boudoir." She tries to get it before Octavia hears any of the actual lyrics, but, of course, she fumbles and drops it on the floor instead, and it finishes the entire ringtone before she recovers it.

All that for a text that just says he's running late, like she hadn't already noticed.

Octavia raises her eyebrows. "I don't know which one is worse--if that's my brother's ringtone, and it's about how awesome he is in bed, or if it's someone else's ringtone."

Clarke contemplates this. "It would probably be worse if it _wasn't_ Bellamy's ringtone," she decides. "Right? Anyway, he's running late."

Octavia rolls her eyes. "I guess it's better than him being bad in bed." She grins suddenly. "What's mine?"

"What is with you Blakes and wanting to know your ringtones? You're the ones who aren't supposed to know. You're never supposed to hear them."

"So, you don't have one?"

"Of course I have one." Octavia is practically her sister; she got a ringtone as soon as she stopped worrying Clarke was going to leave Bellamy broken-hearted. "Flaming Lips. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." Girl beats up machines."

"I knew I liked you. But please change Bell's ringtone."

"I'll put it on vibrate when I'm here."

Still, as soon as he shows up, Octavia asks, "Did you know Clarke's ringtone for you is about your dick now?"

He gives her a look. "It's not about how I make new weather anymore? That one was cool."

She shrugs. "Well, I really like your dick."

He snorts. "Yeah, me too."

 

iii.

Clarke hasn't done any movies since she moved to Arcadia, and she doesn't really miss it, but Wells is directing for the first time, and he wants her for a major supporting role. The script is awesome, she doesn't hate anyone else in the cast, and it would only take a couple of weeks. It's pretty much all the parts of her old life she didn't hate rolled together.

"I kind of want to."

"You really want to," Bellamy corrects. He grins at her. "Don't pretend you're not excited about it. You should do it."

"You could come. It's just a few weeks. Take a vacation, check out LA."

"Miller would burn the store down."

"That does sound like Miller."

He kisses her. "It's just a couple weeks. I'll be fine."

"I might not be fine," she grumbles, but she takes the part anyway. It's not like she has to be around Bellamy all the time, she just enjoys it. 

She has her phone on vibrate most of the time she's on set, not wanting to draw attention to herself or mess up a shot, so she doesn't hear the new ringtone until almost a week in, when it wakes her up from a nap. There's a moment of wild confusion, because she can hear music, and she knows the song, but she's never set it as a ringtone.

_Come back from San Francisco, it can't be all that pretty, when all of New York City misses you._

It's not really a surprise to see Bellamy's name and picture on the display when she grabs the phone, because who else would steal her phone and switch their ringtone to a Magnetic Fields song? But it still brings up a lump in her throat, because he bothered to do it before she left and it's _this song_. She might even start tearing up a little.

_Should pretty boys in discos distract you from your novel, remember I'm awful in love with you._

She barely manages to pick up before it switches to voicemail. "Jesus Christ, Bellamy, you're going to make me cry!"

"Good to talk to you too," he says, amused. 

She wipes at her eyes. "I had the sound off on my phone last time you called. I didn't know you changed your stupid ringtone. I thought you wanted me to do this!"

"I do." He sounds a little sheepish. "It was supposed to be romantic, not depressing."

"It is. But I do miss you."

"Yeah, me too. How's filming?"

She flops back on the couch in her trailer. "It's kind of surreal, honestly. It hasn't been that long, but this feels like another world, you know? It's like I'm pretending to be me pretending to be someone else. Clarke-ception."

"That is not how inception works, it's not the multiple levels of dreams," he grumbles, with a smile in his voice. She makes the reference as often as she can, just to annoy him. 

"It's weird, anyway. Like it's not really my life."

"Well, it's not."

She laughs, soft. "I guess not."

"But your real life will still be here when you're done."

"Unless I leave you for Hollywood."

It makes her really, stupidly happy when he laughs at that, like it's completely unthinkable. It is, after all. "Yeah, unless that happens."

 

iv.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck. It's a fucking _hotel_ room, there's nowhere for it to _go_!" She pulls the pillows off the bed for the third time; still no sign of her phone.

"You're really bad at red carpets, aren't you?" asks Bellamy. He's totally relaxed in his tux, apparently not worried about being her trophy date for her first film premiere in three years. It's deeply unfair that he's better at this than she is. "How did you last twenty-three years in Hollywood?"

"I drank a lot."

"You still drink a lot." He fishes his own phone out of his jacket pocket. "I'm just going to call it, okay? I know you think that's letting it win, but I'm the one Monroe will try to murder if we're late. She's too afraid of you."

Clarke is going to object, but her phone is already ringing from under a pile of pajamas--didn't she _look_ under her pajamas?--and she suddenly remembers what her fucking ringtone is and makes a dive for it.

_The book of love is long and boring, and written very long ago._

"Fucking fuck," she says, trying to sort through the pile of clothing and get the phone turned off. She pulls it out of the leg of her pajama bottoms--seriously _how_ and also _why_ \--just in time for _You oughta give me wedding rings_ to play loud and clear.

Bellamy's doubled over laughing. "Wow. That might be the most passive aggressive ringtone of all time."

"Shut up! It's pretty!"

"It's very pretty." He smirks. "If I didn't know you _always_ set those assuming I'd never hear them, I'd think you were trying to tell me something."

"Yeah, I lost my phone in my pajamas as part of a long con to indirectly guilt you into proposing," she says, rolling her eyes.

"Sure," he says, way too casual. "But I left the ring in Virginia, so you have to wait until we get back."

She drops her phone. "What ring?"

Bellamy leans down to pick it up for her, handing it over with a small smile. The tips of his ears are red. "The ring I bought like a week after you moved in. Don't tell me you weren't planning to marry me. I heard the ringtone."

"Of course I am," she says, a little stunned. Marrying Bellamy had been an abstract thing, something that would happen in an undefined part of the future, like getting a dog and having kids. 

But sooner would be okay too.

He still looks anxious and embarrassed, so she flashes him a grin. "Probably good you didn't bring it. If I showed up on my first red carpet in years with an engagement ring, we'd never get away from the press and make it to all the free booze."

He laughs, clearly relieved. "Exactly. I'll give it to you when we get back."

There's really no option after that but to kiss him. Monroe doesn't try to murder them when they're late getting to the limo, but her glare is epic enough that even Clarke feels bad.

"We got engaged," she explains. "It was a big deal."

"Mazel tov. Early buzz says you might get an Oscar nomination." She's not actually Clarke's assistant anymore, but she can't help organizing Clarke's life when she's in LA. It's a sickness, like Lexa and picking out her outfits. "That's a big deal too."

"Yeah," says Clarke, glancing back at Bellamy. "But not like _this_."

 

v.

Clarke has one wild, irrational second of thinking her phone has gained sentience, autonomy, and a bad sense of humor when it starts playing "How Fucking Romantic" when she's blowing Bellamy in the alley behind Tondici. Then she realizes what actually happened and has to stop what she's doing because she's laughing too hard.

"What?" huffs Bellamy.

"You're butt-dialing me in the middle of sex," she manages, still laughing.

"You're the one who pushed me up against a wall so you could have your way with me." He pauses. "That's my ringtone now?"

"Well, we got married. You can't give me wedding rings anymore."

"I could give you another one."

"I like this one." The ring is her favorite part of being married, mostly because everything else is mostly the same. But whenever she sees the ring on her finger, she remembers she's _married_ , and it's awesome. She's been caught on multiple occasions staring at it like a lovesick teenager.

"Okay, but seriously, the dancing bear?"

She shrugs one shoulder. " _Love you, obviously_ ," she says. "And the bear is funny. And it's your favorite song."

He smiles down at her, fond and amused. "Yeah, but not because it's about us."

"It doesn't have to be about us. I don't need a song to tell me how I feel about you, Bellamy," and she goes back down on him before he can respond. 

"Yeah," he says, breathless, head thunking back against the wall. "I guess not."

**Author's Note:**

> Ringtones:
> 
> 1\. The Magnetic Fields - [When My Boy Walks Down the Street](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIKO4YIzp-o)  
> 2\. The Magnetic Fields - [For We Are the King of the Boudoir](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9RodWqY3Js)  
> 3\. The Magnetic Fields - [Come Back From San Francisco](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BumAkx1zUfE)  
> 4\. The Magnetic Fields - [The Book of Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkjXr9SrzQE)  
> 5\. The Magnetic Fields - [How Fucking Romantic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFdveWxEXG4)
> 
> Octavia bonus: The Flaming Lips - [Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1 & 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ajFCcw2ao)


End file.
